+Grim Reaper 6 Posted March 19 #1 Share Posted March 19 Quote Manchester scientists have created a new material, dubbed ‘StarCrete’ which is made from extra-terrestrial dust, potato starch, and a pinch of salt and could be used to build homes on Mars? Building infrastructure in space is currently prohibitively expensive and difficult to achieve. Future space construction will need to rely on simple materials that are easily available to astronauts, StarCrete offers one possible solution. The scientists behind the invention used simulated Martian soil mixed with potato starch and a pinch of salt to create the material that is twice as strong as ordinary concrete and is perfectly suited for construction work in extra-terrestrial environments. In an article published in the journal Open Engineering, the research team demonstrated that ordinary potato starch can act as a binder when mixed with simulated Mars dust to produce a concrete-like material. When tested, StarCrete had a compressive strength of 72 Megapascals (MPa), which is over twice as strong as the 32 MPa seen in ordinary concrete. Starcrete made from moon dust was even stronger at over 91 MPa. https://scitechdaily.com/cosmic-concrete-made-from-extra-terrestrial-dust-is-twice-as-strong-as-regular-concrete/ 1 Top Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waspie_Dwarf Posted March 20 #2 Share Posted March 20 (IP: Staff) · Already posted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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